Canlis

Do you think he had ANY idea that marrying me would mean he'd be blowing the wad at Canlis 7 years later? Absolutely not. I was a pretty cheap date back then when we were young and clueless but I guess he should have known, choosing someone majoring in food and all...  Can I just say that I married a gem? I mean, let's get this straight: he took me to CANLIS!

 Our anniversary this year sort of snuck up on us amidst a busy season with Graham starting his new job and me still breastfeeding an infant. Ordinarily, we like to plan weekends away which I have love, love, LOVED. It was really hard to come to terms with the fact that a night (let alone a weekend!) was not going to work this year given the state of affairs with our not-really-sleeping-by-any-stretch-of-the-imagination infant. We were both bound and determined that this be the ONLY year we don't get away alone as these times have been crucial for us.

Anyway, since we were "saving" money by keeping our celebration to a mere five hours, we decided we could liberalize our dinner budget and go all out (yessssssssssssss!!) 

PS - I blow-dried my hair for the 2nd time (maybe 3rd?) since Jack was born. Thankfully, I had the forethought to take a picture since it probably won't happen again in 2014. 

We began our evening in Fremont, sampling some chocolate at Theos and tasting some bourbon/vodka at a random distillery before we made our way to Cafe Diablo on Queen Anne, one of our dating stomping grounds.

Then we were off to Canlis! Our evening was so wonderful and the service impeccable. We sort of had an "in" as Graham sings with one of the hostesses there. Even though she was not working, she made sure we got top notch treatment, including glasses of complimentary bubbles, appetizers and a hand-written card.

Pardon the picture quality, please. I felt ballsy enough pulling out my phone to snap pictures of our plates, let alone a "real" camera with mega-flash. Our appetizers were divine. From left to right: a truffled mushroom tart, edamame in a rice crisp and the most gourmet tater tot that has ever touched my lips. All paired amazingly well with our bubbly.

Our waiter was hysterical, though surely it was not his intention. He seemed to pride himself on his thirty-word sentences that left us with more puzzle than clarity. "If you favor the finer flavors of a more substantial composition, or if your appetite allows a more satiable variety of complex layering, might I recommend the roast duck..." and on and on. Each time after he stopped at our table to share a new tidbit, we'd look at each other, totally baffled and wonder is he for real? He was wonderful, really, but we're dying to know if he is this serious outside of work!

For our next course, we ordered Steak Tartare. It was yummy but hands down I would take the beef tartare at Joule Restaurant over this one. Next came the infamous, I mean famous, Canlis Salad which was tasty, but just a salad after all. Our next course was one of the highlights for me: a terrine of foie gras with roasted rhubarb, nettle puree and black pepper brioche. It was delicious and melted in the mouth, as it should.

As if 3 starters weren't enough, we also got the prawns which were sauteed in dry vermouth with garlic and lime. They were good but again we both agreed our favorite prawn dish was served elsewhere (The Barking Frog's Grand Marnier Prawns). Our main course was amazing as well: Muscovy duck, roasted with a honey sesame crust, croquette, orange marmalade and a green fennel puree. The duck was first presented to us whole before it was whisked away to be plated as you see below.

For dessert (as if we had room!), I had mille-feuille milk chocolate, peanut butter, bananas and caramel. Graham had the souffle and both came with a candle and "Happy Anniversary" written across the plate.

Twas a leisurely and lovely evening of delicious food, wine (we finished our first bottle ever - thanks to the long, slow meal, and, let's be honest, having three kids....) and good conversation. We even had our own personal serenade from the amazing piano player in the bar. Cheers to 7 years and cheers to a man who is willing to pull on his fancy pants and take his lady to a place that calls for diamonds! And blow-dried hair, which is about as rare a diamonds these days.

7 Years

 Today we celebrate 7 years as husband and wife! I love this picture (above) because it summarizes "us" in so many ways. I'm the go-go-goer and I'll do-do-do until I'm blue in the face. Graham knows to sit me down, tell me to take a deep breath and remind me it's all going to be ok. We used to laugh about how opposite we are (truly we are!) but now I see these differences as something so much better. We complement each other. 

 Our road has not been easy but it certainly has been rich. I am so in love with this man and life with him keeps getting better as we learn to live deep, lean hard and laugh together in it all. We are best friends. We ENJOY spending time with each other. We are different and yet we are so similar. 

 We are so grateful we serve a mighty God who has had his hand of protection over our relationship. Marriage these days seems more like a thing you do rather than a life you live. Thank you Jesus for keeping us humble, for teaching us to admit our mistakes and to be quick to offer forgiveness. 

 May we continue to grow together, may we never tire of serving. May we always seek to know one another better and to love in word and in deed. 

And may we continue to have fun! That'd just be icing on the cake. 

Tourists in our own city

I love celebrating our anniversary! So far I think we are 6 for 6 in pulling off a getaway each year come March (thanks to the help of loving grandparents and friends these past 4 kid-filled years!) We've never ventured very far from home (well, except for year 1-Italy is pretty far...) In fact, usually we just play tourist in our own city which has turned out to be really fun. Every year I leave the weekend feeling rested and refreshed and grateful that this man and I are best friends. We really do enjoy each others' company! This year we traveled all the way across the bridge to SEATTLE.  

 We started out midday on Friday and went straight to our very favorite weekday lunch spot near Pioneer Square. If you have not yet experienced Salumi,  you must find an open weekday to do so. Their sandwiches cannot be beat. I ordered their spiciest option-smoked paprika salami with Gorgonzola-and Graham had the mole salami with mozzarella. They served their meats on delicious crusty bread with a pesto spread and onions and peppers. The place is TINY and if you are lucky, you can get a seat at the communal table but the food is so worth the wait and the tight squeeze. 

Random raccoon art outside Salumi

 After stuffing our faces with Italian goodness, we proceeded a couple blocks over to Cafe Umbria for some chocolate and pistachio gelato (long live Italy!)

Graham "surprised" me and booked us a weekend at Hotel 1000, a gorgeous hotel right on 1st Ave. He doesn't believe me but at some point he said the name of where we were going out loud but I tried to act super surprised nonetheless. The room was super swanky with a clear glass wall into the large soaking tub (it fills in a straight stream from the ceiling!)

It's tradition-Graham always has to break in the bed this way:

 Our room was on the 10th floor and had this wonderful water view!

 Upon arrival, I was handed a rose by the valet and Graham, a glass of champagne.  

  Graham had exciting dinner plans in store for me which involved walking the 2 blocks from our hotel down to the ferry terminal and scooting across the water to Bainbridge Island. I must say, I love the Seattle skyline with the new wheel!

 He took me to Hitchcock which has been on my restaurant bucket list for a while now and keeps getting written up in magazines. They pride themselves in serving local, organic dishes with handmade charcuterie and craft cocktails. YUM! We arrived just in time to order 3 of their regular dishes for half price off the happy hour menu:  a big bowl of Castelvetrano olives swimming in rosemary-infused olive oil (seriously, where have olives been all my life!?), a plate of baby greens with Danish blue cheese and pickled shallots and a duck liver and quince parfait (pictured in the center) served with flatbread. Graham had is new favorite drink-an old fashioned Manhattan-and I went all crazy and ordered an orange San Pellegrino.

We followed our heavy appetizers with a brined and wood-fire grilled pork chop served with roasted potatoes and apple puree. So good. A few weeks ago at MOPS, I was given a "how well do you know your spouse" quiz put together by John Gottman so much of our dinner conversation revolved around making sure we know each others' current hopes and dreams and stresses and challenges (it may sound mechanical but it was really a very lovely talk!) By this time, we were both stuffed and happy and we made it out of there for $48 flat. Mighty fine for fancy food if I do say so myself. Our sail back into Seattle provided us with this gorgeous view (as well as the free entertainment of watching some early high schoolers figure out how to tease and flirt...)

 After a night of good, solid sleep, we kicked off day 2 at Sweet Iron Waffles where we sipped Stumptown Coffee and dined on fancy waffles.

Graham ordered a savory one with prosciutto, creme fraiche and green onions. My waffle was literally swimming in nutella. Yummmmmm.

 Graham had hoped to get into the SAM art museum for free (he always has tricks up his sleeve) but it turns out the special deal he'd found was only applicable on the first weekend of the month. Being that we are too cheap to spend $40 at an art museum, we proceed on to Pike Place for some Saturday morning browsing.

The flowers this time of year are AMAZING! When we were planning for our wedding, we actually talked about getting our flowers from Pikes the day before the wedding and doing sort of a take-whatever-they-have sort of deal. It was fun to be there on what would have been the day before our wedding 6 years later to see what our bouquets might have looked like. I don't think I would have been disappointed!

 What this girl needs is her very own Shamrock plant!

 It took us a while to work up an appetite after our heavy breakfast but after spending some relaxing time reading back at our hotel room, we popped downstairs to the hotel restaurant Boka for a burger and some truffle fries (I blame pregnancy!) I'd actually been wanting to come to Boka for these famous fries for quite some time but had no idea it was paired with the hotel. For the record, the fries were worth it!

Graham told me to pick an activity that I'd been wanting to do for a while but that I couldn't do easily with kids. Believe it or not, I chose shopping (unlike me I know but it turns out my body is different AGAIN this pregnancy and my other maternity pants don't fit right...) So off we went to the Gap! I bought the first pair of pants I tried on and even found a sweater and some leggings. And we finally found Graham his very first pair of sunglasses. EVER!

Graham really scored with his restaurant picks this weekend! For dinner, he took me to The Whale Wins, a newer place in Fremont that has been getting rave reviews. We were thrilled to walk in and get a table with no wait. The sun even decided to pop out and provide gorgeous lighting for our meal. 

 We ordered roasted beets with sheepsmilk feta, served with a parsley hazelnut relish. It was SO good. The restaurant was mostly white with navy and white accents-a combination I love. The plate our water pitcher rested on is the same pattern my Grandma Wilson used to have. It brought back such warm memories! Next we had a roasted king oyster mushroom gratin with cream and breadcrumbs. It was so rich and delicious. Graham is on a mussel kick and so wanted to try their mussels with curry and potatoes. After a few attempts at eating them, I think I can make an official statement now: I do not care for mussels. 

 The waitress informed us that their roasted mad hatcher half chicken was one of their top selling items so we went ahead and tried it. It was served with a parsnip and rutabaga puree and preserved lemon. I felt like we needed to order the chicken because we never, ever order chicken and everyone should do it at least once. Now I can say I've done it and I do not feel the need to do it again. It was a deliciously flavored roast chicken but honestly, a chicken tastes like chicken. There were so many options on the menu that we can't wait to go back and try some of the other dishes (we've already decided what we will order!)

Following dinner, I got a real hankering for a peanut butter milkshake. The concierge back at our hotel (who was also pregnant) understood the urgency of my request and made it happen in less than 20 minutes. I love hotels like this that can pull off anything and everything!!! We opted to close our evening by seeing a movie (another activity it's hard to do with kids!) 

What a fun, perfect, relaxing weekend! I'll close with this beautiful picture of sunset from our room with the wheel all lit up for the Sounders game.

6 Years

Today we celebrate 6 years together as man and wife! Oh how I adore going back and looking at pictures and reliving this very special St. Patrick's Day. 

I might be just a little bit biased but I thought the day was absolutely perfect. We invested a lot of time into creating a meaningful ceremony and the musicians were phenomenal!

We had such a blast with our friends and family and bridal party of FOURTEEN!  

 Each and every one of these people who stood up beside us as we made our vows played a very critical role in the development of our relationship. 

   I can't help but think how YOUNG we look in these pictures. We were young and naive but SO HAPPY.

And do you want to know something? We still are. Maybe not as young and certainly not as naive but we most definitely continue to be SO HAPPY.

I've spent a lot of time pondering our marriage over the past few months. Our church just finished a series on relationships and each Sunday I left bursting with gratitude for the man that I get to call my husband. Our relationship hasn't exactly been a walk in the park. Could two people possibly be more opposite? Add 3 years and 7 months of graduate school and 2 1/2 children and it sounds like a recipe for disaster. 

We've certainly faced our fair share of challenges but (praise God!) they have only served to bring us closer together. Oh and we've had a lot of fun too. Honeymooning in Fiji, a 1st anniversary trip to Italy, a family trip to Mexico, a babymoon adventure in Kauai, the life-changing arrival of sweet Isla, a 3 week trip to France with Bebe in tow, lots of miscellaneous other trips both near and far, delicious cooking creations, and then Emma made us a family of four, another family trip to Mexico and then a week, just us, in Napa.

 Our days are full and our margins are minimal right now but as this post goes live on the blogosphere, I am savoring a weekend away with my man to celebrate this wonderful marriage of ours. We know a lot of you out there have been praying for us and we feel it. Our marriage is where it is today as proof. We work hard on our relationship but let's make sure we give credit where credit is due - without Christ as the center, this amazing marriage just would not be.

A very happy anniversary to my husband and my very best friend! You light of my life every day and I am so thankful I get to wake up every morning next to you. If we've packed this much adventure into our first 6 years together, I can't wait to see where the next 6 will take us! I love you. 

5 Years of Wedded Bliss

 A few weeks ago on St Patrick's Day, Graham and I cheered to 5 years of married life together! We spent a wonderful, packed-to-the-brim 24+ hours, just the two of us, reminiscing about the journey and how we got to where we are now.

My sweet, romantic husband prepared a stack of numbered envelopes for me to open throughout the day which gave me clues as to our next activity. After dropping the girls off at their grandparents, we started with brunch at Volterra in Ballard, an Italian restaurant we visited while dating (and the location of a rather tell-tale conversation, I might add!) Next was a trip downtown to shop for skinny jeans (Graham was going for a "taste of Europe" theme) and I actually found and purchased TWO pairs. We had a quick lunch at our favorite spot in Pike Place Market, Piroshky Piroshky before it was time to pick up the girls and bring them to their overnight babysitters. Graham had planned to take me through the market to pick out a bouquet of flowers as we very seriously considered buying whatever flowers happened to be in season at Pike Place for our wedding bouquets. We've always wondered what kind of flowers they would have been and what better way to find out than to walk through on your anniversary? But we ran out of time. Next year maybe! We also had to defer a quick wine tasting at a favorite Truffle Cafe to another day as we wanted to maximize our time relaxing at the hotel.

 Our wonderful friend Amy (who has been a part of our anniversary lodging for 3 years counting now) hooked us up with an amazing suite at Hotel Bellevue. I mean seriously, we had an entire living room complete with glass chandelier and everything!

 The bedroom portion of the suite was larger than our living room at home and was decked out with red rose petals in the shape of a heart.

 I know I'm weird, but I had to get a shot of the bathroom too! But I only photographed one of the bathroom (yes there were TWO!)

 Upon arrival at the hotel, we were greeted by name (by employees other than Amy I might add!) and were handed glasses of champagne. Up in our room, chocolate-covered strawberries and a beautiful potted orchid and a full bottle of champagne awaited--royal treatment for sure!

 I love tradition and so have done my best to align my anniversary gifts with the traditional gift suggestion for each year of marriage. Graham is not a gift person and would prefer "consumables" or activities/memory-builders and so this a proven challenging, requiring extra imagination and creative juices. The theme for 5 years of marriage is wood so I selected a old-vine zinfandel (supposedly a US version of a primitivo) that sported wood undertones. Graham had been wanting to get his hands on an old zin to see if it was any good so I think he was quite pleased.

I also enlarged this photo from our engagement shoot and made a card out of it (get it? tree = wood).

Funny story! Amy had told us the hotel had a town car that could drive us to and from dinner. Graham had texted her the location and time of our dinner reservations (I didn't know where we were going) but never heard anything back. Once we arrived at the hotel, he called down to see if we did indeed have a ride but the concierge informed him that our restaurant was outside of the car's driving radius. Oh well! Our sporty mini van was a great second option! I needed to pump before dinner so decided--voila--I could pump in the van en route to the restaurant and save time. Perfect, right? Well, we went down to the lobby, pump in arm and immediately about 4 guys scurried out front to open the hotel doors followed by the doors of the white BMW sitting out front. I noticed the kafluffal but assumed there was some special behind us and so kept walking. Like literally walked right past the open car door 2 feet away from me. After some scurrying,  one of the guys chased us down and asked "Aren't you two going to the Barking Frog for dinner?" We were totally confused and said that yes we were but we'd been told the car couldn't drive us that far. The guy told us, on the contrary, they'd actually brought in an extra driver just for the very task of driving us!!! Wow! We felt awful for walking by them but, we are not used to such service! It wasn't until we were in the car (complete with individual DVD players and reclining back seats, I might add), that I realized pumping was not going to happen. Unless of course the restaurant just so happened to have outlets inside the bathroom stalls (which it didn't). So much for our brilliant plan!

Dinner at the Barking Frog was incredible, as usual. We were served complimentary flutes of champagne along with their to-die-for Grand Marnier Prawn appetizer (Amy's husband Sam knows the owner of the Willows and gave them the heads up we were coming....) Then I just had to try the Buttermilk Fried Quail with Black Pepper Waffle and Maple Chicken Demi. It was better than I could have imagined. Super crispy and delicious! Pardon the cell phone quality picture but it was truly superb!

 For our main courses, I had scallops over the best coconut curry risotto I've ever tasted. Actually the best risotto I've ever had period. And the most beautiful--fluorescent yellow with flecks of lime green and finished with lavendar flowers. Why don't I order risotto more? Graham had the duck breast with citrus and cocoa farro that was ok but I definitely "won" if our entrees were competing. We both went with the waitress' wine recommendations and it turns out I had me a $17 (!!!) glass of wine! Good thing it was our anniversary! :)

Graham spoiled me and got me some sparkly earrings and a cookbook with recipes from many of the most famous restaurants in the Seattle area (Barking Frog included). What a wonderful first night away since Emma's arrival! Thanks to the Croziers and Welchs for keeping the girls!